Helix Talk

[spawnofthesith]

Could always just be a “doesn’t work in my hands” scenario


I know OG 5150s are amazing amps and some of my favorite tones that I’ve -heard- have come out of those amps, but I’ve had a couple and none of them have ever worked out for me

 

[JiveTurkey]

How are you monitoring them as you're dialing them in? That and and an IR you know you like will go a long way.

 

[spawnofthesith]

How are you monitoring them as you're dialing them in? That and and an IR you know you like will go a long way.

Going into my IEMs. If I’m able to pull something off I would also have the practice room PA providing some in room volume as well (despite the fact that we practice with IEMs, I Need some chest vibrations when playing with the band lol)


And like I said tried my favored IRs and maybe a slight improvement but still not dialing anything in I could live with

 

[JiveTurkey]

Going into my IEMs. If I’m able to pull something off I would also have the practice room PA providing some in room volume as well (despite the fact that we practice with IEMs, I Need some chest vibrations when playing with the band lol)


And like I said tried my favored IRs and maybe a slight improvement but still not dialing anything in I could live with

Yeah I got nothing for IEMs. I don't want to be that close to my own guitar playing

 

[spawnofthesith]

Yeah I got nothing for IEMs. I don't want to be that close to my own guitar playing

I mean, they work well for me for a miced cab for sure, RL and IRs… ok for home but dislike for band use

But I’m not even in the same galaxy so for with the stomp

 

[Sascha Franck]

Could you record an amp tone that you like and provide the DI track as well?

 

[spawnofthesith]

Could you record an amp tone that you like and provide the DI track as well?

Yeah! Have the next few days off..

And just last week started playing around with the DI recording the stomp offers. Very nice feature to have on board, we’re having a go at self tracking guitar and bass for an upcoming EP after doing drums at a studio. Nice to have the ability to do that on my pedaboard without anything extra

I’m not totally in love with the amp/IR tones I’ve achieved, but Indefinitely find them passable so if I could get there on the stomp would be sweet

 

[EOengineer]

@spawnofthesith sorry if I missed it, but what type of high gain tone are you going for and what guitar are you using?

 

[Sleezy E]

View attachment 32994

 

[spawnofthesith]

EDIT: wait a minute I thought this was the PRS thread and you ordered the CE what’s going on here

 

[spawnofthesith]

@spawnofthesith sorry if I missed it, but what type of high gain tone are you going for and what guitar are you using?

I’m a mark guy through and through but lover of all things high gain. Not struggling to nail a “tone in my head” struggling to get something mildly decent sounding period


As per Saschas request I did just throw together a dumb captor recording of my mark IV. I don’t even think it’s that great sounding in the slightest tbh (just another spot where I’m at with even real amps and IRs lol) but if I could get the stomp even sounding like that I could live with it

Uploading momentarily

Edit: guitar at the moment is my semihollow CE24

 

[spawnofthesith]

@Sascha Franck as requested, here is an amp + IR clip and a DI. Like I mentioned above, I am not in love even with this IR + real amp recording, but its definitely a lot better than anything I've been able to get from my Stomp so far. I hope this DI is ok, (trigger warning) Reaper wasn't showing any clipping but it seems ganked as fuck compared to what I'm used to from DIs so idk. Like I said, I'm a tube amp neanderthal and only took my first DI recording test like a week ago

Mark IV

DI

 

[spawnofthesith]

I do keep coming back to the rockerverb mod, as that sounds killer through a tube power section, but for an all direct sound, while it might edge out the competition, still just not working for me

I feel like maybe additional EQ blocks seems like the logical next step but don’t really know where to begin

 

[spawnofthesith]

Also feeling extra defeated because I’m surrounded by 6 killer amps that I can quickly and easily get jizz worthy tones out of and I’ve spent my entire evening fucking with something that’s only led to frustration

But I do want to make it at least kind of work l, if for nothing else a backup. Honest. Lol

 

[pablo retamal]

So… despite my edgelord comments about modeling in that other thread… I am really trying here

*disclaimer* I absolutely love my HX stomp. Indispensable part of my rig just an amazing unit all around



Anyway, I’ve spent the last 4hrs trying to get some direct sounds out of the stomp that I would deem usable without any success. Reason being, A. I’d like to have “emergency” patches set up in case I ever had an amp go down at a gig, and B. I just brought my amp I had at my drummers home last night, and I’m a psycho and like having all my babies at home. Thought it might be nice to just be able to go direct at band practice as well.


Anyway, just struggling here. Clean tones, all good, mid gain to crunch, passable. But I absolutely cannot get a good sounding high gain tone dialed in. After spending a bunch of time trying the HX cabs, I got the Ownhammer IRs I typically will use with my RL for my real amps that I’m relatively happy with. Still no dice.

I’ve heard plenty of amazing helix clips and even great live direct instances of the helix so I’m at a loss why everything seems to sound so terrible.

I kind of hope it’s user error of some kind ? But at the same time while I know I’m a dumb tube Neanderthal seems like this shouldn’t be this much of a battle :/

Any tips appreciated

Some hx amplifiers (for high gain) require limiting the use of the master control, for example in the engl, I use it extremely low to take it to high gain levels and it has a very good clean... remember that the presets you make in your home they are not useful anywhere else, and you have to set them according to the volume of work!

 

[BahamaDada]

@spawnofthesith

Description time: What does it lack? Where does it lack? Your case interests me.

Also could just be it isn't for you. I bought a Katana Gen3 and I just can't get along with it. The sounds are okayish and all, but when I do deep parameter dives in the Katana software and I just go back to the Helix I prefer the Helix every time.

I use Line6 stuff since 2011 and I can get a usable sound for any genres from a blank preset in 2 minutes. Granted: This is highly subjective, but I never had problems in a band or recording, so I guess it works?

 

[Sascha Franck]

@Sascha Franck as requested, here is an amp + IR clip and a DI. Like I mentioned above, I am not in love even with this IR + real amp recording, but its definitely a lot better than anything I've been able to get from my Stomp so far. I hope this DI is ok, (trigger warning) Reaper wasn't showing any clipping but it seems ganked as fuck compared to what I'm used to from DIs so idk. Like I said, I'm a tube amp neanderthal and only took my first DI recording test like a week ago

Mark IV

DI

Wanted to give it a try but it seems you need to change the file permissions on GDrive.

 

[Sascha Franck]

And btw, @spawnofthesith, while you're at it and if you can, please upload the IR you were using, too.

 

[CakeEater]

So… despite my edgelord comments about modeling in that other thread… I am really trying here

*disclaimer* I absolutely love my HX stomp. Indispensable part of my rig just an amazing unit all around



Anyway, I’ve spent the last 4hrs trying to get some direct sounds out of the stomp that I would deem usable without any success. Reason being, A. I’d like to have “emergency” patches set up in case I ever had an amp go down at a gig, and B. I just brought my amp I had at my drummers home last night, and I’m a psycho and like having all my babies at home. Thought it might be nice to just be able to go direct at band practice as well.


Anyway, just struggling here. Clean tones, all good, mid gain to crunch, passable. But I absolutely cannot get a good sounding high gain tone dialed in. After spending a bunch of time trying the HX cabs, I got the Ownhammer IRs I typically will use with my RL for my real amps that I’m relatively happy with. Still no dice.

I’ve heard plenty of amazing helix clips and even great live direct instances of the helix so I’m at a loss why everything seems to sound so terrible.

I kind of hope it’s user error of some kind ? But at the same time while I know I’m a dumb tube Neanderthal seems like this shouldn’t be this much of a battle :/

Any tips appreciated

I love my Helix for all the wet/ambient stereo effects I use, but I've always struggled with the amps. For a long time I though I was just dialling them or the cabs in wrong, but then I tried alternatives. I always put my amps at the end of the signal chain, so I just removed the amps and plugged the Helix outputs into my Audio Interface and loaded up Plini X and NAM. Using the same IR collection both just worked. I've spent countless evenings trying to tone-match the Helix, but even when I do, the responses and interactions with playing and effects are just different.

For what it's worth I like Plexi type amps and used the White/Crunch Plini amp and profiles of a Marshall JMP and 1959HW for NAM and I'm getting everything I need, the amps excite me when I play. I really wish I could make the all-in-one Helix work and I love the effects, hardware and software, but I've wasted a lot of time trying to make it happen and I just can't do it anymore.

 

[EOengineer]

It’s wild how people have totally different experiences with gear. I rarely tweak Helix since L6 added the 2203. It’s my go to real amp and I find I can use the L6 1-1 with my own 2204.

It could be that people’s amp preferences might not align with the choices L6 made regarding either the amps they model or the actual configuration of the amp being atypical - such as several of the Marshalls missing bright caps or being modded, Mark IV lead channel not actually configured to do the classic Mark lead tones, etc.